It has for a long time been recognized that the driver of an automotive vehicle can be injured during a frontal crash by the collapse of the front end structure of the automotive vehicle. The pedals are mounted to this front end structure, which makes the pedals intrude back into the passenger compartment and towards the driver's feet. In the event of a crash, the driver has commonly forcibly depressed the brake pedal and/or the clutch pedal, in that the driver is holding his or her foot and leg down rigidly against the pedal. By this, large forces can be transmitted back through the driver's feet and legs, sufficient in some circumstances to cause severe injuries.
In efforts to avoid this, arrangements have been devised in the past to either cause the brake pedal mount to be shifted away during a crash by a deformation of a pivot mount support, or to completely release the pivot mount itself to allow the pedal to drop away in a crash, or by dividing the pedal arm in two by shifting to a lower pivot point to make the lower part of pedal arm forceless.
An example of a prior art arrangement is disclosed in DE 101 29 661. Here, the pedal axle is mounted between two pedal bars which, upon exceeding a force in the event of an accident, release the pedal axle which is then moved upwards by a stay which extends between an end wall and the component part above the axle and which is deflected upwards in a crash situation.
However, in the event of a collision it is important that the pedal is released quickly to avoid injuries to the driver. Thus, designs of pedal release systems which rely on deformation of the vehicle structure to move the pivot away may often act too slowly to avoid injuries.
Moreover, many systems rely on the mechanical interaction between some kind of release mechanism on the pedal system and a counterpart on a surrounding area attached to or belonging to the front end structure of the automotive vehicle (e.g., a cross-car-member or similar). However, in real life situations this kind of release mechanism often fails due to variations in collision impact angle or direction. Typical reasons for such a failure could be that only one side of the pedal system is released, that there is not enough space for the sides to deform due to surrounding components being in the way, or that the distance between the pivot and a cross beam, or similar, is to short so that the system “jams”.
DE 10 2004 001 704 discloses a pedal release system for vehicles which has a release mechanism with a transmission part which engages at least one pedal and is led to an actuator via angled rollers. The transmission part is fastened to the back of the pedal and is led to the actuator situated above the rollers near the dash panel of the vehicle. The actuator is triggered by a sensor signal which simultaneously triggers the personal security systems such as the airbag.
In the arrangement disclosed in DE 10 2004 001 704, a pedal shaft is still attached. Thus, in the event of a collision in which the push rod, connecting the brake pedal and the brake cylinder, is pushed into the driver's compartment the push rod is a fully coupled system which pushes the pedal towards the driver. Thus, if the pedal pivot does not release, all the wire can is to try to pull back the pedal from the driver.
In view of the foregoing, there is still a need for an improved safety pedal system and a corresponding method.
In view of the above, at least one object is to solve or at least reduce the problems discussed above. In particular, an object is to enable the pedal to be quickly and reliably released from its built-in mounting position in the event of a collision in order to avoid that the pedal is forced back into the driver's foot or the lower part of the leg (e.g., the tibia) which could severely injure the driver. Hence, it is another object of the present to provide a safety pedal system for an automotive vehicle for releasing a pedal pivot mounting in an automotive vehicle when a frontal crash occurs, which system and method do not require a mechanical interaction between parts within and outside of the pedal system during a crash event to release the pedal, and which very quickly and reliably releases the pedal pivot mounting during a crash event which would otherwise force the pedal back into the driver's foot or leg. Moreover, other objects, needs, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.